TULSA — In any other season, Norman High might have been taking the gold ball back down the turnpike Saturday afternoon.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, the freight train known as Midwest City was lying in wait in the Class 6A state championship game, and the Bombers made it a perfect run through in-state competition with a 46-32 victory at the Mabee Center.
Four of the Tigers’ six losses were to Midwest City, which ran through the competition all year long.
“Going into the game, we needed to do two things,” NHS coach Matilda Mossman said. “We needed to not give up baseline penetration and we needed to not give up offensive rebounds. We weren’t very good stopping either one. They scored 24 points in the first half in the paint. We just couldn’t seem to stop it.”
The Bombers have a tendency to make good teams look really bad, and that’s what the Tigers looked like in the second period, when the game got away from them.
NHS actually held a five-point lead in the first quarter, and it was a one-point differential after one period, but six turnovers in the first four minutes of the second allowed Midwest City to pull away in a hurry.
The Tigers had no answers on defense. Midwest City is a team full of Division I talent, including McDonald’s All-American Richa Jackson, and the Bombers took turns driving to the basket for layups, picking up loose balls, nabbing offensive rebounds and hitting shots from the perimeter.
Jackson scored Midwest City’s final six points of the first half. She finished with 16 points, 13 rebounds and five steals.
All five Bomber starters scored at least five points and accounted for all 46.
“We’ve played them four times now and we haven’t made a dent,” Mossman said. “They’re obviously pretty good.”
Midwest City (26-2) kept building on the lead after halftime.
Just when the Tiger faithful, who made the two-plus-hour trip to Tulsa, thought it couldn’t get any worse, NHS turned it over six times in the first four minutes of the second half.
Midwest City took advantage, going on an 8-0 run to go up 38-15, its biggeest lead of the game.
The Tigers kept fighting, though, even getting the lead down to 12 with more than 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter. But a couple of missed one-and-ones kept them from getting the lead to single digits, and in the end, the deficit was too much to overcome.
“Our kids played with great heart and believed they could still do some things to win the game,” Mossman said. “They were very patient and took care of the ball well. In the end, when you bury yourself that deep, it’s very hard to climb out.”
Jordan Franks led NHS with 10 points and six rebounds, and Kamra King, who scored 33 points against Edmond North in the semifinals, finished with seven points and three steals.
Unfortunately, King had to be carried off the court after injuring her right knee with 4:58 remaining. NHS continued to fight, though.
“She’s the heart of this team,” Mossman said. “She’s our leader. We could easily have given up after she went down.”
Jeannie Ramon got her inside game going in the second half, after being held scoreless in the first. She finished with six points, 12 rebounds, two assists and three steals.
Seniors Chelsea Key, Laran Vanderpool and Gwen Nelson combined for five of the Tigers’ points.
“I’m really proud of how everybody played today,” Key said. “We just didn’t give up. A lot of people didn’t think we’d make it this far. We proved everybody wrong.”
And the Tigers will likely be back next year looking for an eighth straight state-tournament appearance. King, Franks, Ramon and Olivia Meek will all be back from the championship game’s starting lineup.
Unfortunately for the NHS seniors, a loss in the final game isn’t exactly the way they wanted to go out.
But second place to a team as talented as Midwest City is nothing to be ashamed of.
“This isn’t the way I wanted to end my season,” Key said. “I’ve wanted to play in the state championship game since I was a freshman, and I got to do it in my last basketball game.”
Jeff Johncox 366-3535 jjohncox@normantranscript.com
